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Best-selling author Tom Clancy has died at age 66, his publisher confirms to NBC News.

Clancy died Tuesday in a Baltimore hospital, but his publisher did not disclose the cause of death.

Author Tom Clancy Remembered

The famous author of works like "The Hunt for Red October" and "Red Storm Rising" had died at the age of 66. His last book, "Command Authority," will reach bookshelves on Dec. 3. (Published Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013)

The Maryland-born author was best known for his Cold War thrillers like "The Hunt for Red October" and "Patriot Games." These novels along with "Clear and Present Danger" and "The Sum of All Fears" were turned into commercially successful films featuring actors Alec Baldwin, Ben Affleck and Harrison Ford. A fifth movie based on his desk-jockey CIA hero, "Jack Ryan," is set for release later this year.

His latest novel, "Command Authority," is due out that same month from G.P. Putnam's Sons.

2013 In Memoriam: James Avery

He also has several nonfiction bestsellers including "Into the Storm: A Study in Command" and "Every Man a Tiger," according to Tomclancy.com.

"He was a consummate author, creating the modern-day thriller, and was one of the most visionary storytellers of our time," said David Shanks, Clancy's publisher at Penguin Group. "I will miss him dearly and he will be missed by tens of millions of readers worldwide."

Clancy had said his dream had been simply to publish a book, hopefully a good one, so that he would be in the Library of Congress catalog.

Born in Baltimore on April 12, 1947 to a mailman and his wife, Clancy entered Loyola College as a physics major, but switched to English as a sophomore, saying later that he wasn't smart enough for the rigors of science.

Ironically, his novels carried stiff doses of scientific data and military detail.

After graduation in 1969, he married his wife Wanda and joined her family's insurance business, all the while scribbling down ideas for a novel.

In 1979, Clancy began "Patriot Games," in which he invented his hero, CIA agent Jack Ryan. In 1982, he put it aside and started "The Hunt For Red October," basing it on a real incident in November 1979, in which a Soviet missile frigate called the Storozhevoy attempted to defect.

In real life, the ship didn't make it, but in Clancy's book, the defection is a success.

By a stroke of luck, President Reagan got "Red October" as a Christmas gift and quipped at a dinner that he was losing sleep because he couldn't put the book down — a statement Clancy later said helped put him on the New York Times best-seller list.

It led to a string of hits, both on the page and in Hollywood blockbusters. He even ventured into video games with the best-selling "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier," ''Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction" and "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent."

Clancy continued to play off — and sometimes almost anticipate — world events, as in the pre-9/11 paranoid thriller "Debt of Honor," in which a jumbo jet destroys the U.S. Capitol during a joint meeting of Congress.

The latest Jack Ryan movie, directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Chris Pine, is set for release in the U.S. on Christmas Day. Keira Knightly plays Jack Ryan's wife and Kevin Costner plays his mentor at the CIA.

Clancy resided in rural Calvert County, Md., and in 1993 he joined a group of investors led by Baltimore attorney Peter Angelos who bought the Baltimore Orioles from businessman Eli Jacobs.

Clancy also attempted to bring a NFL team to Baltimore in 1993, but he later dropped out of the effort.